 On March 17, 1865, less than one month before the end of the war, he participated in a mission to attack Confederate forces in Mattox Creek, a tributary of the Potomac in Virginia.A boat equipped with a howitzer was launched from another ship of the Potomac Flotilla, the , and a group of seventy men was sent to follow along the river bank on foot.Anderson and a number of other black landsmen worked the oars on the boat, while Boatswain's Mate Patrick Mullen manned the howitzer and Ensign Summers acted as commander.